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Towards a PX frameworkAnders Drachen, Lennart Nacke<br />

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Content<br />What is UX and PX? <br />Games: not productivitytools<br />Towardsa PX framework?<br />

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Background<br />User experience in games is gaining momentum (or no EPEX11)<br />Pastdecade a ton of new research and industry attention<br />Research touches upon a number of fields(HCI, CS, Neuroscience, Media, Psychology, AI, Informatics, Data Mining,Physiologyetc.)<br />

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What is PX?<br />Terminology? (non-existent)<br />Player Experience – User Experience in Games – GameplayExperience – Game Experience– Play Experience….<br />Let´splease just agree on something – anything!<br />Here weuseplayexperience<br />

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What is PX?<br />PX is somethingthatoccursbefore, during and afterweplay games … <br />Most interest in the ”during” - PX in runtime:<br />Wowthis is cool!<br />I´mbored …<br />S¤&% run! Run! Run!<br />Mhmmm … night elves …<br />… deepconcentration …<br />

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What is PX?<br />ISO 9241-210 defines user experience as:<br />"a person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service". <br />User experience is subjective and focused on the use of something.<br />

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What is PX?<br />Additional ISO notes:<br />User experience includes all the users' emotions, beliefs, preferences, perceptions, physical and psychological responses, behaviors and accomplishments that occur before, during and after use -> temporal factor. <br />Three factors that influence user experience: system properties, user stateand the contextofuse.<br />

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What is PX?<br />RIFT<br />Example: John is playing RIFT in a net café - whataffects his PX?<br />Context: The physical properties of the café<br />Social: The influence of otherpeople present physically and those in the RIFT environment<br />John<br />

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What is PX?<br />Temporal: the durationfoplay and whenheplays, constraints on time (10 minutes to server maintenance…)<br />Infrastructural: Server breakdowns, networkoutages<br />Task: The specifictask of playing RIFT is an example of a two-waytask<br />System: The RIFT GUI, game system and the cafés hosting system<br />

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What is PX?<br />The sum of experiences:<br />Using oneaspect of RIFT willimpact on the experience of otheraspects.<br />The overall PX is not just a sum of small experiences – someenhanceeachother, someare more important to John, etc. <br />PX is the end result of all of theseincluences = emotionalstateand attitudes of the user (towards RIFT)<br />(often at a given point in time, e.g. after a playtest). <br />

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What is PX?<br />But wait, there is more!:<br />Aspectsoutside the specificinteractionperiodpotentiallyimportant: <br />Brand recognition, pricing, peer opinions, etc. <br />Oftenresearch focus on:<br />PX duringinteraction (emotion evaluation)<br />long-term/episoidicPX (attitudes)<br />Methods to evaluatethese temporal levelsvary – as do design approaches<br />

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What is PX?<br />That is a lot of things to considerwhenplaytesting or evaluating a game!<br />And now it get´sworse …<br />Games aredifferentbeaststhanproductivityapplications: PX is king. <br />PX optimized, complex,time<br />

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How are games different?<br />PX optimized<br />Focus on entertainment, not productivity (usability)<br />Everyaspect of a game must be made to optimize PX<br />Usabilitylikelyassists PX<br />

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How are games different?<br />Complexity<br />Contemporarycommercial games canbemassivelycomplexpieces of software <br />Thousandsof potential user actions<br />Users canevenchange games! (modding) <br />

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How are games different?<br />Time<br />The temporal dimension is central, both for design and assessment – measures of PX areheavilyinfluenced by the temporal dimension<br />

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Towards a PX framework<br />The challenge is clear – how to proceed?<br />

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Towards a PX framework<br />Knowledge from UX, UX design and usability<br />Theoreticalmodelsof PX– none areinclusive of all aspects<br />Empirical research – hard data on PX - but situation-specific<br />

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Towards a PX framework<br />Get the piecesorganized …<br />Important dimensions:<br />Time<br />Abstraction<br />Agents<br />

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Towards a PX framework<br />Two important agents in play:<br />Designer creates the game with the intent of creating an experience<br />Player interacts with the game and experiences something, but framed in the context of use etc. <br />

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Towards a PX framework<br />3 levels of abstraction:<br />System: Concretelygraspable and technical game system experience<br />Player: Individualplayerexperiencethatinfluences and is influenced by the perceptive and operational actions of the player<br />Context: Processedexperience. Abstract experiencelevel, shaped by the playerinteracting with others, technologies, brands, etc. <br />

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Towards a PX framework<br />Timeoperates<br />at all levels of <br />abstraction<br />Pastexperiences<br />influence the present <br />Currentexperiences<br />influence the future<br />

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Towards a PX framework<br />Assembling<br />the dimensions<br />

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Towards a PX framework<br />And westill have not talkedabout the actual<br />Elements of PX (emotions,attitudes , flow, etc.)<br />Engagement<br />Fun<br />Flow<br />Challenge<br />Emotion<br />Attitudes<br />…<br />

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Thank you<br />